Counting the Stars
by ninalanfer
Summary: Saren/Nihlus - Nihlus has been abducted by their target and Saren knows it's just a matter of time before he will risk not wanting to know what he will find. This episode is taking place between chpt 1 and chpt 2 in my Super Psycho Love story. Prompt. Drabble. Complete.


**Summary:** Saren/Nihlus - Nihlus has been abducted by their target and Saren knows it's just a matter of time before he will risk not wanting to know what he will find. This episode is taking place between chpt 1 and chpt 2 in my Super Psycho Love story. Prompt. Drabble. Complete.

.-oOo-.

"Nihlus, get our of there right now!" he growled. He knew what was coming already. _Get out, get out, get out... _It was the hardest of things to not start screaming on the top of his lungs to hurry up, whatever he was going to do he had to do it soon, it was a matter of seconds before the opportunity of escape closed. But he couldn't distract his protégé, that could be even more disastrous, so Saren held his tongue and waited. His body on high alert. Except he couldn't reach him. His prized apprentice and only friend was hundreds of kilometers away, down on the planet, in some back alley, just about to get abducted, and there was nothing the old Spectre could do but sit and listen to it happening.

"_Knew is a strong word,"_ he heard Nihlus drawl in his I-am-too-cool-to-be-bothered-by-some-silly-dangerous-situation-voice. _Please, you stupid boy, take this seriously! Don't you know what is about to happen? I thought I had taught you better than that._

"_Snarly: Whatever. We're taking you in,"_ the dark voice of an elcor came in, slightly diffused, over the earpiece, Nihlus microphone not able to pick up the entire register of the voice.

_Please move, please move, please move,_ Saren thought to himself, wishing that the young turian on the planet below had learned enough to...

A high electric whine cut through the intercom and made Saren deaf for a second. Then it went dead, and with it came an equally deafening silence.

"Nihlus!" he yelled into the microphone even though he knew it was to no avail. "Nihlus, can you hear me!"

No answer.

Saren sat down into the pilot's chair in the cockpit, he hadn't even noticed he had gotten up to his feet, an empty feeling spreading through his chest. Nihlus was gone.

He looked out of the front window, the big rock in front of the orbiting ship dusty and brown, surrounded by the cold, empty, black space. It looked so wast all of a sudden. How was he supposed to find his protégé? In an hour or less they could be on the other side of it, holed up in some unknown hiding place. Or for that matter leave the planet altogether. Travel to any number of close by stations, planets, or even solar systems. He cursed the irritating progress in transportation methods.

The longer he sat there, stunned by the dawning realization that he might never get to see Nihlus again, the more he felt like the whole situation was slipping through his fingers. That would not do! In less than a few hours the leads would cool and then it would be all but impossible to find his friend.

His friend who had been dropping hints larger than elcors of how the state of their friendship might be able to evolve into something else. Sure, they had been subtle at first, a lingering touch, an exchanged look of something different in those green eyes. Saren had tried to ignore them. It was a fools mission to start something up with the boy, he knew that. Nihlus was a friend. His only friend. He was already closer than he was really comfortable with. Anything more and... It was his own damn fault anyway. He'd slipped up a few months back. In a moment of weakness after days of close to no sleep and a jungle that had been out to get them, the rain making everything soggy, including his own plates, Saren had let his mind wonder about the possibility. Let his body react to the close proximity to the boy who was, by all definitions of the word, delectable.

Nihlus response had been larger than he could have anticipated. The young Spectre-to-be had never shown the slightest inclination to being attracted to his teacher before. Frankly Saren sometimes wondered if he was afraid of him. Apparently he'd been wrong. So wrong in fact he had barely made it back to the Citadel to sleek his thirst, inviting over a lady friend the first thing he'd done, trying to erase the memory of Nihlus' hitching breath or the smell of his obvious interest.

When his apprentice later pursued the question, without so many words, it had been hard to resist, but also the right thing to do. He couldn't imagine the boy having more than a fleeting interest in something that was purely physical. Saren could do physical, Spirits knew he was as close to an expert on the subject as any turian could be. But he also saw the possibility for something else with Nihlus, for the first time since... Maybe ever, and that was not acceptable.

The thought that he might never find out though... It haunted him now as his practiced mind started to work on a list of what he would need to bring, as another part of it located where he needed to go, what string he needed to slice open and make bleed first. It wasn't until he had the asari informant that had betrayed them lying on the floor beneath him, begging for her life, two days later, that he realized time had passed. He'd been so focused on tracking her down and making her talk he had barely remembered to eat, let alone sleep. He couldn't feel anything but the overwhelming need to keep moving, keep searching.

"Where is he," Saren growled, low and menacing, the vibrations of it rumbling through the air, making him sound like an animal.

He gripped the front of her jacket, pulling her up from the ground, making sure she saw the white of his teeth and the fierce scorn in his eyes. His talons were covered in red from the beating he'd rained down on her when she wouldn't give him his answer.

Tears were streaming down her face, washing away her blood in thin streaks across her cheeks.

"I'll give you the coordinates," she sobbed. "Just don't kill me, please."

Saren threw her down on the floor again, looming over her like a threatening shadow. He pulled his gun and she winched.

"I told you I'd give them to you!" she cried.

He inclined with his gun towards the omni-tool, too angry to form real words, the only thing managing to slip by his tightly held mandibles was low growls of impatience. The asari's fingers shook as the 'tool lit up and a minute later his own pinged with a message received. Checking the text he raised his gun and trained it on her head.

"Wait! I gave it to you! You don't need to kill me!"

Saren's mandibles trembled in barely contained rage.

"Need to, no," he said in a low and cold voice. "But I want to." And then he pulled the trigger.

Without bothering to hide away the bleeding corpse, Saren walked out of the building, people shying away from the sight of the bloodied turian. He paid them no mind as he turned his face up towards the night sky.

He would find Nihlus. Even if he had to count all the stars up there.


End file.
